the method is undefined for the type string

Question

why would I have "the method is undefined for the type string" in java with this statement:

if(book.getTitle().getAuthor().getAward()){..}

the error is for getAward()

when I have defined a class Author as this:

class Author {

private String name;
private boolean award;
public Author(String n, boolean p){
    name=n;
    award=p;
}

public String getName(){return name;}
public boolean getAward(){return award;}

} May the error come from another definition (other than Author?)

Answer 1

change your getAuthor() method implementation to that

public Author getAuthor(){
   return new Author(); // or some author that is set in your object
}

And on that you can performe another method. if(book.getTitle().getAuthor().getAward()) if Author class have method getAward

public class Author{
  public boolean getAward(){ // implementation
  }
}

Answer 2

You need to change your getAuthor method to

public Author getAuthor(){
  return author;
}

and if you want the authors award , then u should invoke

book.getAuthor().getAward()

Answer 3

actually get Author is in another class and returns a string. getTitle is from a third class and returns string as well. Book is from a fourth class.

Then the answer is obvious.

You are attempting to call getAuthor() on the result of calling getTitle() . But the result of getTitle() is a String ... and String doesn't have a getAuthor() method.

And that is exactly what the compilation error is telling you.

---

In fact, you probably should write:

if(book.getAuthor().getAward()){..}

then change getAuthor() to return the Auteur object ... rather than the author's name.

A book (Oevre) has an author, but a title (String) does not.